MedPage Today (3/21, Monaco) reports, “Greater social support for older adults with depression helped boost verbal functioning, researchers” concluded. In the “cross-sectional study” involving “54 participants with an average age of 72,” researchers found that “seniors with major depressive disorder tended to score higher on phonemic fluency – measured by Controlled Oral Word Association Test…– when they had higher levels of perceived social support.” What’s more, “this association went both ways,” the study revealed. The findings were published online March 21 in a research letter in JAMA Network Open.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (3/21) reports, “Women with severe mental illness (SMI) – such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression — are less likely to receive recommended treatment for breast cancer than those without SMI, according to a [new] report.” Researchers “included 13 studies in the review, which included a total of 299,193 participants.” Among “these, four studies estimated the odds of receiving guideline-appropriate breast cancer treatment in people with schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders and/or mood disorders.” The review was published online March 9 in Psycho-Oncology.

Related Links:

— “Breast Cancer in Women With Severe Mental Illness Often Undertreated, Review Suggests, Psychiatric News, March 21, 2023

Kaiser Health News (3/21, Leys) reports on the increasing frequency of “video visits” as “an increasingly common way for residents of small-town nursing homes to receive mental healthcare.” Even though the “use of some other telehealth services may dwindle as the Covid-19 pandemic winds down,” clinicians “predict demand for remote mental health services will continue to increase in rural nursing homes.”

Related Links:

— “Mental Health Care by Video Fills Gaps in Rural Nursing Homes ” Tony Leys, Kaiser Health News , March 21, 2023

Psychiatric News (3/20) reports, “Older adults who develop delirium after a surgery may experience faster cognitive decline than those who do not develop post-surgery delirium,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from the Successful Aging after Elective Surgery…cohort, which included 560 adults aged 70 years and older who showed no signs of dementia and were scheduled for an elective surgery.” The study team examined “cognitive data collected up to six years after the participants’ elective surgeries.” The findingswere published online March 20 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Postoperative Delirium Associated With Accelerated Cognitive Decline, Study Finds, Psychiatric News, March 20, 2023

Healio (3/20, Weldon) reports, “For the first time, a study found a link between the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on family finances and children’s mental health, researchers” concluded in a study that “used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development…study to examine 6,030 children aged between 12 and 14 years.” The study revealed that “financial disruptions during the pandemic worsened children’s levels of stress, sadness and worries related to COVID-19, with no similar impact seen from school closures.” The findings were published online March 13 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Study: Pandemic-related impact on family finances worsened child mental health “Rose Weldon, Healio, March 20, 2023

The Hill (3/16, Choi) reported, “Federal actions during the pandemic led to uninsured rates falling to record lows, especially among Black and Hispanic people, but a new report released by the Commonwealth Fund suggests these improvements are vulnerable to being lost once the COVID-19 public health emergency officially ends in less than two months.”

Related Links:

— “Coverage gains for Black and Hispanic people during pandemic could be lost with end of public health emergency “Joseph Choi, The Hill , March 16, 2023

Psychiatric News (3/17) reported, “One in five deaths by suicide is related to problems with current or former intimate partners such as divorce, separation, romantic breakups, arguments, jealousy, conflicts, and intimate partner violence,” CDC investigators concluded after analyzing “data from the National Violent Death Reporting System for 402,391 adults who died by suicide between 2003 and 2020.” The findingswere published online March 15 ahead of print in American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Related Links:

— “1 in 5 Deaths by Suicide Related to Intimate Partner Problems, Psychiatric News , March 17, 2023

Healio (3/17, VanDeWater) reported, “Self- and reflected appraisals differed over time between people with depression and people with euthymic mood,” which “indicate people’s alignment of self-perception and others’ perception of them.” The study, which “recruited 252 adults with either depression (n = 76) or euthymic mood (n = 176),” revealed that “temporal self-appraisals and reflected appraisals were not similar in people with depression, but were similar in people with euthymic mood.” The findings were published online ahead of print in the April issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Temporal self-, reflected appraisal differs between people with depression, euthymic mood “Kalie VanDewater, Healio, March 17, 2023

Healio (3/16, VanDewater) reports, “Participation in an outreach program following a nonfatal opioid overdose was associated with lower risk for later overdose death, according to” study data. Researchers “evaluated the rate of opioid overdose deaths per quarter from 2013 to June 30, 2019, in 93 Massachusetts municipalities that had at least 30 opioid-related emergency medical services responses in 2015,” and “there were 58 municipalities with outreach programs by the second quarter of 2019.” The findings were published online March 15 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Outreach program after opioid overdose decreases later overdose death “Kalie VanDewater, Healio, March 16, 2023

Psychiatric News (3/16) reports, “Patients who enrolled in a trial of medication treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) who did not start or complete their assigned medication were at greater risk of experiencing an overdose than those who took their medication, according to a study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry,” a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Certain Patients With OUD Remain at Risk of Overdose After Entering Treatment, Psychiatric News , March 16, 2023